Saving Graham
by Lorelei Candice Black
Summary: Another What if? Story. What if Emma had found the staircase under the tomb of Regina's father? What if she helped Graham get his heart back in place?


_**Saving Graham**_

_Starts in Season 1, Episode 7. _

_Emma/ Graham_

_Another What if?_

* * *

><p>From his bedroom window, Henry had watched as Graham left his house a believer ready to help break the curse and when he saw Emma and Graham talking for a few minutes before they followed the wolf in the general direction of the woods, he smiled widely.<p>

Maybe this was it.

Maybe she would finally believe in the curse, in him and in her mission.

Maybe she was ready to save them all.

If Graham really was after his heart, then the wolf would guide them both to it, to Regina's vault and what could possibly make the savior believe more than a glowing heart being pushed back into her friend's chest?

Henry vaguely wondered if they were only friends though. Kissing did give Graham his memories back, so it was True Love's magic but was it True Love Magic only because Emma was the product of True Love or was it because they shared feelings deeper than friendship?

Looking at one of the clocks around his bedroom, Henry suddenly remembered that they were Wednesday evening and that Regina would go to her vault, to her father's grave like she did every week. Given the time it was, she would be on her way soon so Henry decided to create a little white lie and help Emma and Graham, give them more time to succeed in finding what they were looking for.

Grabbing the phone from the land line, Operation Cobra always ready with an excuse to delay the Evil Queen he was forced to call 'mom', Henry dialed Regina's number.

"Henry, what is it? You know I'm on my way to my father's grave, I'll be home in about an hour." Regina told him in an annoyed voice.

"I don't feel well mom. My stomach hurts and I think I saw someone in the back yard. Graham went to chase them with Emma but I'm scared and alone and I don't feel well at all. Should I call Emma back? I'm sure she won't mind..." Henry lied, using his best weak voice, pretending he loved the woman that pretended to care about him.

He knew that just because he motioned Emma, Regina would come and stay with him until he was feeling better. Jealousy could be a powerful tool with people like his adoptive mother.

"I'm on my way. Lie down in your bed, I'll be right there." Regina told him with annoyance before she hung up and Henry smirked.

Before she arrived, he warmed his forehead a bit with a lamp and wet his skin to make it look like he was sweating. Then, doing his best to look pale, he lied on his bed, waiting for Regina to come home early and fall right into his trap. She would never guess that he was helping Graham getting his heart back. She always underestimated him as usual and it would cause her failure this time.

.

In the tomb, Emma and Graham didn't see anything other than a stone grave. They were about to turn around and give up when Emma noticed something on the floor. It looked like one of the graves had been pushed to the side several times, leaving permanent marks on the stone floor.

"Graham, over here. I think there's something here. Help me push it back a bit." Emma called out and he rushed to help her push it to the side.

It revealed a set of stairs going down.

"I can't believe it… Who hides stairs under a stone coffin? I thought they only did that in movies!" Emma breathed out.

"It has to lead to her vault. Henry said that she brought it with her in the curse." Graham said before he rushed down the newly revealed stairs, followed closely by Emma who was starting to think that maybe Henry had been right all along.

"What the hell is this place?" Emma asked, looking around and not knowing what to think.

"It's her vault, according to Henry, that's where she keeps all of her magic so that nobody can find it. I can feel it… My heart is here…" Graham replied before he turned back to the wall full of golden drawers that he recognized from one of his memories.

"Come on…" Emma said, meaning to sound exasperated, she sounded more pleading as Graham automatically went for the little drawer where he remembered Regina placing his heart in.

He pushed it a bit and it opened with a little 'click', revealing a wooden box inside. He took it out and opened it.

"My heart." He breathed out.

"No! It can't be…" Emma said, looking with large eyes at the glowing beating thing.

"I assure you it's real. Now you have to push it back in. You're the product of True Love, you have magic, even in this land. You can do it." He told her faithfully.

"Push it back in?" She asked and he nodded.

"Fine, I'll try but if it doesn't work, we're leaving and you're seeing a doctor, getting some rest and admitting that this isn't real." She asked him and he nodded, knowing that he would be proven right in a few seconds, minutes at best.

With shaking hands, Emma took the heart in her hand and placed it over his chest, where it should be.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked him, nervous and he nodded.

"You can do this. I know you can." He told her faithfully.

"Fine… Let's do this." She nodded and with a deep breath held in, she pushed her hand against the heart she was holding in place.

She watched in amazement as it entered Graham's chest, along with her hand.

"Don't let go until it's in place." Graham told her when he felt her shock.

"Okay…" She nodded and kept on pushing her hand with the heart until it felt right.

Then she let go and took her hand out of his chest.

"So, you believe me now?" He asked her.

"I… I think I have to…" She replied.

"Come on, let's go before Regina gets here. We'll talk more at the station." He told her.

"Wait, if she comes and tries to get your heart, she'll see its missing. We have to replace it with something." Emma told him before he started walking up the stairs.

"You're right. I remember that she had the hearts of people who were dead… I should replace mine with one of those." Graham nodded and went to a big box, opened it, pushed around a few silk materials before finding the hearts. He grabbed one and placed it where his used to be before they both left and pushed the coffin back in place.

However, when they left the mausoleum, Regina was standing in front of them with Henry by her side, obviously trying to delay her some more.

"What are you two doing here? You're trespassing on my private property!" She asked aggressively.

"We came to get my heart back." Graham replied honestly, stepping in front of Emma, ready to protect her if necessary.

"Oh come on Graham, you can't possibly believe that? It's just a stupid child's theory." Regina rolled her eyes.

"No it's not!" Henry exclaimed as he tried to pull away from his adoptive evil mother.

"Yes he does, and so do I. I'm sorry I didn't believe you sooner Henry. I believe now and I promise you, I'll do everything in my power to help you and break this curse." Emma told Henry who was trying to break free from Regina's hold to get to Emma.

"Let him go Regina, now or I'll arrest you for child abuse." Graham said after Henry cried out.

Frustrated, Regina was simply going to loosen her hold on the savior's son but he managed to break free by hitting her in the hip and ran to Emma, his real mother and hugged her.

"Come back here Henry! Right now! This woman has absolutely no authority over you." Regina yelled.

"I love you Henry. I promise you, I'll do everything I can to break this curse as soon as possible." Emma told him before she closed her eyes and kissed his forehead.

Suddenly, a powerful pulse of True Love left Emma's lips and went over the town.

"No!" Regina yelled, furious.

The sound of her angry cry reverberated through the woods.

"What's going on?" Emma asked Graham.

"You broke her curse. You did it! True Love's kiss broke the curse. We're all free now." Graham told her with a wide smile as he went to hug her and Henry quickly before he exchanged a quick kiss with her.

"Great, let's put her ass in jail and go see if everyone in town is remembering as well." Emma suggested and he nodded, already placing handcuffs on the fallen Evil Queen.

"They should, you broke the curse so everyone should remember everything now. Even your parents." Henry smiled.

"You won't get away with this Miss Swan! Henry is mine! MINE!" Regina yelled like a demented as Graham, Emma and Henry pushed her to the car to drive her to the station and the cell she deserves.

.

Emma, Graham and Henry had to park away from the station because it looked like everyone had gathered around it, probably looking for their Savior to celebrate the breaking of the curse.

"I guess everyone else remembers." Emma guessed.

"It's going to be hard to get her inside in one piece." Graham said.

"Look, your parents are there too!" Henry exclaimed.

"Yeah, this is going to be hard to get used to…" Emma smiled as she looked at Mary-Margaret and David, the people who used to be just friends to her and now turned out to be her parents.

When they left the Patrol car with Regina in handcuffs, everyone clapped and cheered happily for the victory the Savior had provided them. They all seemed to enjoy seeing Regina powerless in handcuffs. The woman who once ruled this town and seemed to have friends and allies in every corner now understood that she was alone.

"Emma, you did it honey, you found us! You saved us all!" Snow exclaimed as she rushed to be the first one to hug her daughter.

"I… hum…" Emma started to say, not really knowing what to do or even if she should hug her mother back.

"It's okay Emma, I'll lock Regina up, you enjoy your reunion with your family." Graham told her with a big smile.

"But we still need to talk…" She protested.

"And we'll have all the time in the world for that later, don't worry." Graham assured her while Henry told David and Snow how the curse was broken and how Graham got his heart back.

"You won't get away with this, you can't arrest ME! I'm your Queen! I'm above you all!" Regina was yelling.

"You're nothing more than a criminal now lady. Not even a witch because there is no magic around." Emma smirked.

"RUMPELSTILTSKIN! GOLD! You have to help me!" Regina yelled to the top of her lungs.

"I don't have to do anything dearie. You're getting exactly what you deserve and you have nothing to trade for it that could possibly interest me." Gold replied as he appeared from the crowd.

"Really? Belle is alive and only I know where she is! Free me or you'll never find her, Dark One." Regina snapped.

"How stupid are you exactly?" Emma intervened, looking at the fallen Queen and everyone turned to look at her.

"Excuse me? How dare you speak to me like this?" Regina glared back.

"You're a prisoner now and your curse is broken. How long do you think before the people you bullied into helping you hide this Belle step out of the shadows and tell us everything you've been hiding? Whoever Belle is, I'm sure we'll be able to find her without your help pretty quickly. Maybe even tonight." Emma explained confidently.

"If not, we can still lead an investigation to find her." Graham added.

"No! This was supposed to be my happy ending! Where is my happy ending?" Regina yelled as Graham tried to push her inside the building with the help from the dwarfs.

"You're a villain Regina, and villains don't get happy endings. I guess you should have made better choices. It's not like you didn't get enough second chances." Henry told Regina before she was too far to hear.

"Emma… I… We're so happy to see you…" Snow told her daughter before she found herself wrapped between her parents.

"I… It's going to take me some time to get used to this…" Emma told them as she tentatively returned their hug.

"It's okay honey, we have all the time in the world." David replied.

"Party at Granny's everyone!" Leroy yelled as he exited the station.

"Is Graham still inside?" Emma asked him.

"He said he'll join us as soon as he made sure she can't escape, princess." Leroy told her with a small bow before he rushed to join his brothers.

"Did he just call me Princess?" Emma asked her parents.

"Well, that's what you are honey… You're our daughter… a princess." Snow told her gently in a soft, caring voice.

"That's going to take some getting used to… I think I liked it better when he called me _sister_ like everyone else." Emma sighted.

"We have another problem Miss Swan…" Gold told Emma.

"What is it?"

"I'll need to bring magic back in order to look for my son, which is the favor I wanted you to owe me. I want you to help me find my son and in order to do that, I need magic." Gold explained.

"Can you even do that? Bring back magic?" She asked him.

"Yes, I do. We can discuss it tomorrow… I'll go and try to look for Belle until then." He replied.

"Maybe we should help you, it seems important… Who knows what Regina put her through..." Emma suggested.

"You should enjoy your reunion with your parents Miss Swan, I would never want to rob you of that." Gold told her as Graham came back out.

"Why don't we do this together, as a family, then we'll all be able to enjoy the party together." David suggested.

"Good idea, let's check out her office first. It's time for Operation Chameleon!" Henry declared and everyone followed him.

"Operation Chameleon?" Gold asked, confused.

"That's how I decided to call the Operation to save Belle." Henry explained, making them all chuckled.

"Yeah, it's one Operation after the other here." Emma rolled her eyes.

"Here you were just done with Operation Cobra." Graham chuckled.

.

They were all about to enter Regina's office when Jefferson exited the office's doors. After some quick introductions, he told them where they'd be able to find Belle, explaining that he got this information when spying on the Evil queen to find something to use against her to get his daughter back. When they asked him what he wanted in exchange, he simply said that he came to get his hat back and that now that he had it, he'd be on his way to find his daughter and try to get a happy ending with her.

After that, finding Belle was easy. She had her memories back as well and was surprisingly very happy to find the Dark One. They decided to meet the next day to bring back magic and discuss what they'd do with Regina and Emma, Graham, Henry, David and Snow went to join everyone else at Granny's party.

Henry seemed in his element and enjoyed telling everyone how Emma believed when she saw Graham's heart and pushed it back into his chest and how she broke the curse by kissing him and telling him she would find a way to see him and protect him from Regina. In his eyes, and in his words, Emma was a hero and the young woman was being praised by everyone.

At the end of the night, when everyone got home, Emma, Henry, David and Snow found themselves in the loft and they naturally shared the living space. It wasn't as awkward as Emma feared it might get.

"It's going to get crowded pretty soon…" Emma realized.

"We'll make it work until we find a bigger place." Snow smiled confidently.

"You're right." Emma nodded.

Emma settled Henry in her bed, planning on using the couch to sleep and joined her parents downstairs again to see if they wanted to talk a bit.

"So, are you ready to talk with us now?" Snow asked Emma.

A bottle of wine was opened on the table and three glasses were filled.

"I guess now is as good a time as ever…" Emma nodded shyly.

"You have to know Emma, that putting you in that wardrobe, all alone, was the hardest thing we ever did… We just thought that we were giving you your best chance… The curse was almost here and we didn't have much time to think about it and consider our options..." Snow explained to her daughter.

"I know… You did it because it was the best for everyone, but I can't help but think that for 28 years, all I knew was that my parents didn't want me." Emma replied, tears in her eyes.

"But if we hadn't done it, you would have been cursed too." David reminded her.

"But we would have been together, which curse is worst?" Emma asked them in a small voice they hadn't heard from her yet.

"I… Emma… With Regina, we didn't know if we would have been able to be together… She simple could have taken you away from us and done horrible things… We didn't want to risk it…" Snow told her daughter.

"I… I get it, really, I do but… It's still hard." Emma nodded.

"All we want is for you to give us a chance to be your parents Emma, please…" David pleaded.

"Of course… If Henry can give me a chance, I think I can give you one too. It would be quite hypocritical not to." Emma smiled before she finished her glass.

"Good." Snow smiled.

"Now, how about we talk about Graham?" David suggested with a smile.

For the rest of the night, Emma and her parents talked about her growing feelings for Graham, her life as a child in the system, Henry's father… It was around 4 in the morning when they were talking about Henry's father and none of them saw the little boy sitting in the stairs, listening to everything.

"My father was a thief and sent you to jail for his crimes?" Henry asked, making his presence known.

"I… Henry… It doesn't mean anything… Neal was a bad guy, yes, but you have nothing to do with him…" Emma told him as she walked closer to him.

"But he hurt you… If he hadn't left you, you would have kept me, right? You just said so… It's his fault if Regina adopted me and raised me." Henry exclaimed.

"I… Listen Henry, if he hadn't lied to me and betrayed me, I would have raised you, yes. With him, we would have been a family but he was a liar and it would have been a bad, unhappy life. What's important is that we're together now, that we can have a new beginning and that we can be a family without him." Emma explained to him.

"But it's not too hard to see me? I don't remind you of him?" Henry asked her.

"Sometimes you do, but you remind me of the good moments. Like when you snick out of Regina's house to see me, you reminded me of when Neal taught me how to break a lock… Believe it or not, it was a happy moment." Emma smiled.

"Okay…" Henry nodded.

"Now I think we all need to go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be busy enough." Emma reminded them and they all agreed.

.

The next morning, Emma and her family went to have breakfast at Granny's before they led Henry to school, where Snow explained that she couldn't work there anymore since she had to deal with leadership problems. After that, they joined Graham at the station where Gold and Belle were already waiting for them.

"Good Morning Emma. Here, I got you a Bear claw." Graham smiled when he handed Emma the pastry box.

"Thanks." She smiled.

"How charming… I can't believe you get your heart back only to give it to _her_." Regina said disdainfully with a glare in the new couple's way.

"How about we ignore Regina and go straight to the point." Emma suggested as they all went to another room where the Evil queen wouldn't be able to hear them at all.

"Gold, how do you plan on bringing back magic?" David asked.

Then, for the next few minutes, Gold explained how he had stored magic in Maleficent and that they needed to get it back.

"After that, bringing magic will be quite simple, all I have to do it pour it in the well." He finished.

"But what about Regina, she'll be able to escape and start hurting people again." Snow reminded him.

"Fortunately for us, magic here will be different than back in our world. It will take Regina some time to get used to it and it will give me enough time to cast a curse to take her magic away from her." Gold explained.

"A curse? Isn't that dangerous and dark magic?" Emma asked him.

"It is, but this particular one isn't too hard to cast and doesn't require any sacrifices. I happen to have a special wand that will be able to do it quickly for us." Gold smiled.

"Good." David nodded.

"So, Emma, David and I go down to the Library's basement to get the egg?" Graham asked.

"I'm not sure I like the idea of Emma going down there…" Snow frowned.

"It's in her blood your majesty but you don't have to worry. Before Regina cast her curse, I had a vision and I saw Emma alone down there, facing the dragon form of Maleficent and coming back up with the egg, unharmed." Gold replied.

"Did you see the fight?" David asked him.

"Unfortunately no. Visions of the future are sometimes blurry an complicated. All I know is that in my vision she went down there alone with her father's sword and came back out unharmed, if we forget the few hairs out of place, and with the egg in her hands." The Dark one replied.

"Then I have to go alone. If Dav… I mean Dad and Graham come with me, it might change things and someone could get hurt." Emma said.

"Exactly. Thought I never saw what happened to Maleficent, I can't tell you if you'll kill her or simply cut the egg out of her." Gold told her.

"I guess we'll see… I guess trying to make a deal with her and set her free is out of the question?" Emma asked.

"It would be best to leave her there, yes." He nodded.

"Maybe she'll cooperate if we promise to send her a magic-less Regina later." Graham suggested, making them all smile.

.

When Henry got out of school that afternoon, he found his family celebrating bringing back magic safely and dealing efficiently with Regina.

"What about Mister Gold's son? When are we going to go look for him?" Henry asked them.

"Well, tomorrow is Saturday so if you want, you can come with us when we go see Gold. He'll have used magic to find out what name his son used in this world and maybe even what he looks like or where he lives." Emma explained before telling her son how she had fought Maleficent's dragon form to get the egg with the magic potion back.

"So, did you and Graham talk yet? About your relationship?" Henry asked his mother later, making her parents smile.

"I… We didn't really have time yet… Maybe tomorrow…" Emma replied, shaking her head.

"Tomorrow there will be another crisis and you'll find another excuse not to talk to him. You should go now. I'll stay with Grandma and Grandpa. We'll be fine." Henry assured her.

"I… It's okay, I can wait…" Emma replied.

"Henry's right Emma, you should go now. You have to look for the nice moments during and between the crisis, sometimes even make them otherwise you'll never get anywhere." Her father reminded her.

"Fine… I'll see you later then." She nodded, getting up and making her way to Graham's apartment.

.

"Emma? What are you doing here? Is something wrong?" Graham asked her.

"I thought that maybe now was as good a time as any to have that talk about… you know…" She replied.

"Of course, come on in." He smiled, letting her in.

"Do you want anything to drink? Or to eat?" he asked her.

"No, it's okay. I just had dinner with Henry and my parents…" She assured him.

"Okay… So… Listen, I just want you to know, me kissing you wasn't just about getting away from Regina. I really wanted to kiss you. I do like you… that way." He tried to explain.

"Good." She smiled shyly, feeling like a teenage girl at the moment.

"But if you need some time, I totally understand." He added quickly.

"I don't… I don't think I need time… Whatever is between us, it feels good… It feels right and you managed to get my walls down, something that never happened since Henry's father… I think I'd like to see how far this could go." Emma smiled.

"Good." He replied with a soft smile before he kissed her.

.

The next day, Emma, Graham and her parents found Gold in his shop. He was staring at a mirror that didn't reflect his face but another, younger one.

"Who's that?" Henry asked the older man.

"My son. In this world, his name is…" Gold started to say but Emma had walked closer and seen the face in the mirror and replied instead:

"Neal…" She whispered but everyone heard.

"You know him?" Gold asked her surprised.

"My father?" Henry asked.

"What?" Gold asked again.

"Neal… He's your son? Did he know who I was all along? Did you plan it? Is that why he left me to go to jail for his crime?" Emma yelled, half crying while Graham and her parents went to hug her.

"I… He couldn't have known… He left so long ago… He was in Neverland when the curse was cast and only came back here a few years ago… There was no way he could know… Even **I** didn't know that…" Gold shook his head as he suddenly saw Henry in a new light.

"I guess that makes you my grandfather too then!" Henry exclaimed while Emma shook her head.

"I… I can't… I can't see him… I don't want him to come here…" Emma shook her head.

"Emma, honey… Gold needs to see his son… You can't forbid him to come here…" Snow told her softly.

"I'd like to see him too mom, even if he did all that… I'd like to get to know him… At least see him once." Henry declared.

"Miss Swan… I need to find my son, to tell him I love him… that I'm sorry for not following him through the portal… I need to explain why I didn't jump… He needs to understand…" Gold pleaded and everyone was surprised that he wasn't reminding them of the favor she owed him and of the deal they made.

"The dwarfs found out that we couldn't leave town without losing our memories… You're the only one who can find him Emma." David reminded her of what happened that morning.

"I can make a potion to make a talisman so one person can come with you and keep their memories, but no more than that…" Gold added.

"Fine." Emma said before taking a deep breath.

"Who's coming with me?" She asked.

"I have to stay and be the sheriff…" Graham apologized.

"Well, I am. We'll call it Operation Scorpion." Henry declared.

"I'd like to come as well. It's my son after all." Gold added.

"If we could we'd come Emma, but there's not enough potion… We'll stay here and wait for you to come back. We need to clear out Regina's office and set a new order here anyway." Snow nodded.

"I'll be ready to leave by tomorrow afternoon." Gold assured Emma.

"Fine, Henry might end up missing a couple of days of school but let's go and face Neal. I hope he has a good excuse for what he did. Oh and me coming means you don't stop me if I end up deciding to punch him in the face." Emma said before she headed out of Gold's shop.

"Emma, it's going to be okay. You're strong enough to face him. You'll be fine." Graham reassured her as he followed her outside.

"I hope so. I really do." Emma nodded.

"Now come on, let's go at the station, we still have some work to do." He smiled.

"Promise me that Neal coming back won't change anything between us. It's just getting starting but I don't want to lose what we have... What could be..." She asked him on the way to the Sheriff's station.

"As long as it doesn't change the way you feel about me, it won't change the way I feel about you. If you still want us to be together, nothing will change that." He reassured her.

"Good, because there's no way I'm letting him back into my life anymore than I have to. If Henry wants him to be a part of his life then fine, he can be a part of Henry's life but I don't want to deal with him any more than I have to." Emma declared.

"Maybe he has a good excuse for leaving you…" Graham suggested.

"No excuse will be good enough, not when he knew my history and my trust and abandonment issues." Emma shook her head.

"You're right. Now come on, some people still need us to help them find their loved ones." Graham replied as he opened the door to the station where the phones were ringing.

"Graham?" Emma called out to him before they went to work.

"Yeah? What is it?" he asked her.

"Thank you." She simple replied with a smile.

"What for?" He wondered as he walked closer to her and took her in his arms.

"For being here for me." She told him before sealing it with a kiss.

"Always." He replied before he kissed her again.

"Now come on, let's go back to work." He smiled.

Emma knew that it didn't matter what happened next with Neal. She had something good that just started with Graham and there was no way Neal would be able to break that for her. She'd find him, introduce him to his son, reunite Neal with Gold and convince him to go back with them to get to know his son. Then she'd go back home to her newly found parents and to her new boyfriend.

* * *

><p><strong>I know it's short and not as big as it could be. I'm also aware that the end is a bit rushed. Maybe I'll make it bigger later but for now it's over.<strong>

**A little (or big) review would be most welcome.**

**Lorelei Candice Black**


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